Florida Farms stretched by migrant labor shortage

CLERMONT, Fla. — Kyle Hill strolls down rows of plants, stopping at times to pick a weed out from the raised mounds of dirt. He’s alone in the four-and-a-half-acre field, awash in golden reflections as the sun moves to the horizon.

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Two days from now, eight thousand people will descend on this field, plucking bright red strawberries to bring home and turn into fruit bowls and pies. Tourism is one of the two things keeping Southern Hill Farms afloat. The other is migrant labor.

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“They’re great guys who are always in good spirits, work very hard, appreciative of what they’re doing, and they are an absolute necessity to our business,” Director of Farming Operations Kyle Hill said.

Like most farms in the Sunshine State, Southern Hill Farms contracts with the H-2A visa program to bring labor in from Mexico and Central America. The visa is reserved for temporary agriculture workers, who are brought to the US for up to 10 months to plant and harvest crops at various farms before heading home to rest.

The program also comes with loads of restrictions for farmers. Licenses, contracts, housing, transportation, insurance, food – everything is paid for by the farm, on top of the $12 per hour salary. During harvest, laborers make more since they’re paid by the pound.

“It’s not cheap. It’s not a cheap process at all,” Hill said. “It’s pretty much all we all we can do because we can’t find the work here.”

Hill is quite possibly the last American to successfully complete a day in his family’s fields. He worked them as a teenager with a friend on summer break, an experience he described as “brutal.” The last time Southern Hill Farms hired an American to do the grunt work, the worker quit before the day was over.

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However, that labor supply is being stretched. In 2017, farms applied for 200,000 migrant positions across the United States. The number has been steadily rising, to 318,000 positions in 2021.

Hill said he had to start his own H-2A contracting business on the side to ensure his farm could find the 125 men it takes to pick his blueberry fields.

“We’ve just been getting phone call after phone call,” from farmers who are looking for help, he said.

Unlucky farmers must use machines to harvest their crops. While it’s standard practice for a more durable export like corn, machines are considered subpar because they damage fruit more often.

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Referencing anti-migrant labor sentiment and requests that farms hire Americans, Hill said they come from people who don’t understand that migrants are keeping grocery store shelves full.

“For those that say hire Americans, I would love to bring them out to the farm and work one day out here and see how long they la

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